Hypocrisy is telling other people how to live when you are unwilling to do the same things. This was what the Pharisees were doing. Hypocrisy is telling people that we are all sinners in the same boat, who all need to repent of many different things, but then making out that we have no need to repent and everyone else does. Hypocrisy is claiming we love Jesus, claiming he has changed our lives, all while living in such as way that there is zero evidence of it in practice. It is saying one thing and doing another, demanding others live in ways we are unwilling to live ourselves.

We were continuing in our sermon series in Matthew yesterday. This week, we reached Jesus’ comments about hypocrisy and the woes he pronounced against the Pharisees. You can listen to the whole message here if you are so inclined (the sermon comes at the front end of the service).

During the course of one point, I went off-piste. I was moved to suddenly go off my notes on a short detour. I can’t remember exactly what prompted it. You can probably find the section if you watch the sermon back. But I was particularly moved to speak into the very worst thing we can do to somebody. Unusually, I got a bit upset about it to be honest. Not least because it happens time and again and is a matter on which I think many UK churches need to repent and to whom the Lord will have some very stern things to say.

One of Jesus’ big concerns in Matthew 23 is that the Pharisees are leading people to Hell. Jesus says expressly that this is what they do, where they are going themselves and where those who follow them will end up too. Earlier in the gospel, Jesus has some very hard words concerning millstones around people’s necks if they cause any of his little ones to stumble. The ‘little ones’ isn’t just about children, but more broadly Jesus’ people. Stumbling in scripture does not usually mean a sinful (but repentant) lapse, but rather tends to mean falling away altogether. Jesus is saying anyone who leads people away from the kingdom – as the Pharisees teaching does – would be better off never having been born!

My sidebar (albeit a relevant one) centred on this. One of the purposes of the passage we were looking at is to help us avoid hypocrisy. To look at ourselves and ask if we really belong to the kingdom unlike the Pharisees who were hypocrites and didn’t. One of the applications drawn was the need for church discipline. As church members it is our duty to warn people if they appear to be living hypocritically and we should welcome others pointing out where we are living hypocritically so that we can repent and not remain hypocrites who find ourselves outside of the kingdom on the last day.

But so often church discipline is dismissed as ‘unkind’ or ‘unloving’. Who are you to tell me that my life does not match my profession of faith? Isn’t that the real essence of hypocrisy: telling other people how to live?

Well, in short, no it isn’t.

Hypocrisy is telling other people how to live when you are unwilling to do the same things. This was what the Pharisees were doing. Hypocrisy is telling people that we are all sinners in the same boat, who all need to repent of many different things, but then making out that we have no need to repent and everyone else does. Hypocrisy is claiming we love Jesus, claiming he has changed our lives, all while living in such as way that there is zero evidence of it in practice. It is saying one thing and doing another, demanding others live in ways we are unwilling to live ourselves.

Assuming we are not saying we are better than anybody else – we are sinners too – but this is a kingdom-disqualifying matter of sin that warrants repentance is not hypocrisy. It is not pointing at ourselves and saying how great we are, it is actively calling people back to Jesus. And (I would hope) is done out of a genuine concern for the state of a person’s soul rather than any desire to make ourselves out to be superior to them.

But I think churches very often do not want to engage in meaningful church discipline of this sort. And, I’ll be frank, I get it. Who wants to have awkward conversations with people about their lifestyle choices, their unrepentant behaviour and evident sin in their lives? It is difficult and unpleasant, not just for the person hearing it, but for the person having to bring it up. The only people who relish those sorts of conversations are psychopaths! Most of us, if we are honest, want a quiet life and are only too conscious talking to people about their sin and calling them to repent of specific matters is absolutely not the way to get it.

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